This invention relates to a new and improved picket fence and more particularly relates to a new and improved picket fence including posts, rails and pickets which, after the posts are mounted vertically by having their bottoms fixed in the ground such as being set in concrete footings, may be simply and quickly assembled using primarily only a person's hands and with minimal use of hand tools. Still more particularly, this invention relates to a new and improved picket fence including a plurality of sections wherein adjacent sections share a common post and which sections may be oriented at an angle, laterally or vertically, with respect to each other.
Numerous picket fences are known to the prior art. U.S. Pat. No. 4,723,760, patented Feb. 9, 1988, entitled PICKET FENCE ASSEMBLY, William O. Sullivan inventor, discloses an adjustable picket fence assembly constructed in sections including posts, rails and pickets and wherein assembly is accomplished by providing the rails with interior apertured flaps for receiving rods extending through the rails to which crossing pickets are interlocked. U.S. Pat. No. 4,951,925, patented Aug. 28, 1990, entitled FENCE CONNECTOR ASSEMBLY, David H. Schultz et al. inventors, and U.S. Pat. No. 4,982,933, patented Jan. 8, 1991, entitled FENCE CONNECTOR CLIP AND ASSEMBLY, David H. Schultz inventor, disclose a fence and connector assembly which may be mounted on level or uneven terrain and which includes posts and rails and connector clips for attaching the rails to the posts; the latter patent is a continuation-in-part of the earlier patent. U.S. Pat. No. 4,923,176, patented May 8, 1990, entitled FENCE ANGULAR CONNECTOR ASSEMBLY, David E. Heinz inventor, discloses a fence connector assembly provided with a connector bracket defining a vertical cavity for receiving a fence post, vertically oriented laterally extending side members project from each side of the bracket, and a swivel bracket including a pair of spaced legs connected by a convex bearing portion engages the side members so that the legs form a rail receiving pocket therebetween; the bearing portion has a horizontally elongated slot and a lock fastener extends through the slot into threaded engagement with the connector bracket enabling the swivel bracket to be swivelable to selected positions thereby allowing selected orientation of a rail relative to the connector bracket and a post.
There exists a need in the picket fence art for a more simple picket fence which may be readily assembled by a person, preferably substantially manually without the requirement of hand tools, and picket fence is relatively inexpensive to manufacture.